I realize that I can't convince everyone to drop the carbs on Thanksgiving, so for those of you who are stuck on traditional stuffing, I offer this recipe to you. At least with using whole grain bread, you can lower the glycemic index a touch.
Whole grain bread still contains a lot of sugar from carbohydrates, but, the hull on the grain takes longer for your body to smash and digest into a size small enough to be absorbed through the cell walls. This helps to prevent a dramatic spike in blood sugar
Recipe
1 loaf Whole Grain Ciabatta Bread, 3/4" dice
8 ounces Yellow Onions, 1/4" dice
8 ounces Celery, 1/4" dice
1/2 ounce Parsley, sliced fine
1/2 ounce Fresh Sage, sliced fine
1 tbs Dried Oregano
2 each Whole Organic Eggs
16 ounces Chicken or Vegetable Broth
3 tbs Avocado Oil
What To Do
We are going to tackle this in 4 major steps, but none of them are complicated, at least not in my head. Ready?
1. Dice the Ciabatta and place it into a mixing bowl. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of Avocado Oil and season with coarse sea salt. Place the cubes on a baking sheet and toast in a 425f oven for 10-15 minutes until the bread is almost dry and toasted, like a crouton on a salad. Remove from the oven and let it cool off to the side without burning your counter or someone else's fingers...
2. Wash and dice the celery and then the onions. In a large saute pan on medium-high heat, saute the vegetables in the remaining tablespoon of avocado oil. Make sure the pan is very hot and you can see light essence of smoke from the oil before adding your vegetables... CAREFULLY. Don't move or stir right away, you will cool off the pan and the vegetables will boil themselves instead of turning their water into vapor to evaporate. Lightly brown the vegetables then add your fresh and dried herbs, season lightly with coarse sea salt and remove from the heat and allow it to cool to the touch.
3. Next, in a large mixing bowl, combined the bread, celery, onions, chicken broth and eggs. Toss all of the ingredients together quickly but gently. Your goal is to mix the eggs and liquid into all of the bread without making a paste, so fluff it instead of folding and squeezing.
4. Finally, place the mixture into a baking dish and place it in the oven that should still be on 425f from when you toasted the bread. Cook it for 45 minutes until the top is browned and the center of the dish reaches at least 165f to make sure the eggs are thoroughly cooked.
If you are roasting a turkey, you can also stuff the turkey with the stuffing before it's baked in a casserole dish. Hence the name, stuffing. the downside to this method is that you'll still want to cook the stuffing to an internal temp of 165f, which will be in the center of the big ole' turkey. That means the outside of the turkey will be dry ass hell and the stuffing will just barely be cooked. So, to me, I'd rather not eat Mama's dry ass turkey, and cook the stuffing separate.
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